Many of my readers who’ve been following my progress on Dark Magick Rising (or who follow me on Twitter) know that I’ve had super-gargantuan motivational writing support from one of my favorite people in the world (and one of my fave authors!) Andi Van. Andi pretty much keeps me in line writing-wise, and we’ve discovered we make a damn good writing sprint team when we have words to get done! But you wanna hear something cool? Andi has a new release out this month–it was available March 5th! It’s the third book in their Mages’ Guild Trilogy. The title is Magic Triumphed. Naturally, when Andi mentioned they needed to add a few more stops to their Magic Triumphed blog tour, I offered up my space because if you love fantasy and paranormal stories (especially diverse stories), you need to read Andi’s books! Seriously. Go. Right now! Okay, wait, FIRST read this blog post. Then do yourself a favor and read some Andi Van books!
Now that I’ve unashamedly fangirled, I’ll shut up and get out of the way and let Andi (and their dragon!) take over my blog for the day! 🙂
“Write me a story with a dragon.”
You never think that a single sentence could change things so drastically. Or at least I don’t. But in 2007, when I decided to participate in this thing I’d heard of called NaNoWriMo, that’s exactly what my grandmother told me when I called her to tell her I had no idea what kind of story to write.
So I wrote her a story with a dragon. That was in 2007, mind you, and the original iteration of Tasis’ story was only one book long and badly written in places. Especially the ending. The ending was horrible. But I was lucky enough to have a chance to fix that, to expand my fictional world into an entire universe.
And hey… I wrote a story with a dragon for you. I hope you like it.
You can follow along with the blog tour at http://andivan.com/magic-triumphed-blog-tour. Since the dragons are what started this whole mess (both in reality and in the story), it’s the dragons I’ll be talking about for most of the tour. Keep your eyes peeled for a random giveaway or two!
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Gisik. Gisik is definitely an antagonist. The other dragons are quick to say he wasn’t originally evil, but became twisted out of jealousy. Gisik has been in love with the Maker for…well, ever. Probably almost literally. And jealousy can drive people who are otherwise good to do some pretty horrible things. (Gisik is still evil, as far as I’m concerned, so don’t think I’m trying to excuse his behavior. But it felt important to me to point out that he wasn’t always that way.)
Gisik is shown in a mural from the previous book, Magic Wept, as being a black dragon. We discover in Magic Triumphed that that’s not actually the case, and Zaree wonders if Gisik’s coloring had changed at some point or if the mural’s artist hadn’t been able to capture his real color scheme. One of these things is true, but I’m not going to tell you which, because it might come up in the Kingdom of Archai trilogy (because I’m incapable of putting a story world down, it seems).
Can Gisik be redeemed? I’m not so sure, but maybe we’ll find out in the future.
***
“Our sister was murdered by Gisik,” Vashk explained, his voice mirroring the pain Zaree had seen in Yldost’s expression. “I was there, and I tried to stop it.”
“Okay, wait a second,” Zaree said, rubbing at her face. The entire situation was far too confusing for her liking. “Didn’t Gisik die in the battle with Yldost?”
“Yes,” Vashk confirmed. “At the end of the war, Gisik died. But as I’ve mentioned before, Gisik doesn’t stay dead. He can’t.”
“Yldost touched on that previously,” Jorget said. “And I understand it’s the truth, but can I just note that I find the whole thing weird? Death is death.”
“Oh really?” Triv asked dryly, making Corrin laugh.
“There is no such thing as happiness without sadness,” Yldost said softly. “There is no such thing as light without darkness.” They paused, giving the assembled humans a long look before speaking again. “And there can be no order without chaos. If there was not an opposite to each of those things, there is no measure by which to compare. If you have never been sad, how do you know if you’re happy?”
“What you’re saying is that he’s a… necessary evil?” Zaree asked. It made a weird sort of sense, but it was a lot to wrap her brain around.
“Our uncle wasn’t always evil,” Vashk said. “Bitter, yes, but he’s become twisted. So what Jorget said is true. I am indeed saying it is literally impossible for Gisik’s death to be permanent. He has to exist. Chaos has to counter order. There has to be balance.”
Andi Van is a foul-mouthed troublemaker who lives near San Diego with a baseball bat that’s forever being used for things other than baseball, and a fondness for rum and caffeine (though not necessarily together). Andi is fluent in three languages (English, sarcasm, and profanity), and takes pride in a highly developed—if somewhat bizarre—sense of humor.
Social media info:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DefiantAndi
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/defiantandi
About Magic Triumphed…
Zaree Muna would follow her brother Tasis anywhere, but she never imagined that path to lead where it has. After Tasis and his familiar fall under a magical sleep from which no one can wake them, she and her party prepare to face the mad king of Archai without him. They don’t expect the journey to lead to the Maker herself, who predicts three deaths will occur as the battle to save their world from Archai and a jealous god nears. Two of those deaths will be loved ones, and if things go wrong, the third death could spell the end of everything.
But no one ever accused Zaree of being a coward, and as she and the others go into battle to save what Tasis has rebuilt, she is ready to laugh in the face of death. The thousand-year wait is over, and none of them will accept anything less than triumph.
Available now at…
Harmony Ink Press
Dreamspinner Press
Amazon
